Verily, it is written that Apple will selleth you the Air

Sunday 20 January 2008 05.04 EST
First published on Sunday 20 January 2008 05.04 EST

It's that time of year again. Last week the Church of Apple Resurgent gathered in San Francisco for its annual congregation. The faithful were granted an audience with the Blessed Steve Jobs, who revealed unto them what miracles he had wrought since they were last gathered together. First, he showed them a Time Capsule, which can bring back the past and preserve memories of days gone by.

Then he comforted them by narrating the Great Success of his Personal Communicator, the iPhone, of which four million have been sold in 90 days. This heart-warming news was followed by information about a scheme whereby the faithful may hire moving pictures from Steve's Celestial Music Store.

But all these were merely the prelude to the greatest revelation of all - Apple is to sell Air. At this, he produced a simple A4 envelope from which he drew forth a magical device, not unlike the blade of an elegant hatchet, ranging in thickness from 0.16in to 0.76in. This is the MacBook Air, and hath no wires or - said the Blessed Steve - any need for them. Many of the faithful swooned, while others waved their wallets in an orgy of technolust and were only quieted by the appearance of Randy Newman, Musician to the Court of Steve, who sang two ditties and accompanied himself on the pianoforte.

There is no parallel with the annual Jobs Keynote Address in any other industry that I can think of. But this year's seemed more muted, somehow. In the old days, every new product or upgrade would be greeted by cheers, whistles, cries of 'Yee-haw!' and foot-stomping. But last Tuesday there were just ripples of polite applause from an audience whose members seemed suspiciously well-dressed. Could it be that the Jobs Keynote has become just another hot ticket on the corporate hospitality round?

As for the new laptop, it's chic but expensive (£1,199) and technically compromised. If you need to use optical disks, for example, you have to buy (and cart around) an external drive. The battery is sealed in the unit (as in the iPhone), so replacing it involves returning the machine to Apple. There's no obvious way of plugging in an ethernet cable (which means that the Air is restricted to relatively slow wi-fi connections). The hard drive holds only 80GB, and if you want the 64GB diskless version the solid-state 'drive' will set you back another £829. So much for what Apple calls 'thinnovation'.

Blogosphere comment was sniffy. One prominent blog held that the name derived from the fact that air is all that would be left in the wallets of those who pre-ordered the machine. And there was a distinct geeky consensus that for all its design virtuosity and aesthetic attractions, the MacBook Air looks like being more of a fashion accessory than a machine for Serious Hacking.

But similar objections were levelled at the iPhone, and look what's happened with that. It has captured a fifth of the US smartphone market in its first quarter. So let's see what happens.

Control disorder

'The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned', wrote Sydney Smith in 1807, 'the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants and the fatuity of idiots'. The same might be said of the government and the net.

The latest control freak is Home Secretary Jaqui Smith, who has announced her determination to target websites promoting extremism. She wants to use technology to stop 'vulnerable people' being 'groomed for violent extremism'. She has, as of now, no practical way of doing that, but is of the opinion that 'because something is difficult, that is no reason not to have a go at it. The internet can't be a no-go area for government.'

Smith is to discuss her plans with the communications industry. Translation: she is going to lean on British ISPs. To do that, she will have to join a long queue of representatives of the movie and record industries and those of her governmental colleagues who have swallowed the propaganda of the copyright thugs. If this unholy alliance were to have its way, ISPs would be transformed from common carriers to computerised censors, legally liable for everything that passed through their servers. The result would be an internet choked with filtering systems monitoring everything sent or received by every user in the UK. Is that really what these people want?